Media Coverage of TAY Issues

“Attorneys are seeking a preliminary injunction that would require the Compton Unified School District to train all teachers, administrators and school-site staff on how to recognize the effects of chronic trauma on students’ ability to learn, think, read, concentrate and communicate.” Read more here.

It was just an ordinary day at the office until Sokhom Mao noticed an email in his inbox from the White House. Three weeks later, he was on a plane traveling from his home in Oakland, Calif., to Washington, D.C., to be honored as a 2015 White House Champion of Change. On May 19, Mao received the award, along with eleven other former foster youth, for his work to improve the lives of current and former foster youth.

Oakland hometown hero Mao, just 28, has more than a decade of advocacy work on his resume, having logged countless miles to Sacramento to speak with legislators about the needs of youth in foster care. Two of the causes Mao has long championed and which he carried to the White House are housing stability and higher education.

“But after being referred to East Bay Asian Youth Center’s “Street Team,”a local nonprofit that, among other things, works with teens on probation, Cervantes was able to improve in school and turn his life around, he said. The 19-year-old now spends his Saturdays cleaning the streets in Oakland’s San Antonio District, where he recently took[continue reading…]

Youth Radio trains kids to tell their own stories and you can see that happening all over the building. But there is also a professional element. Youth Radio is the Youth Desk for National Public Radio and for KCBS radio right here in the bay area. In fact – 18 year old Desmond Meagley is working on a story right now about teen suicide rates and how that is affect by accessibility to guns and firearms.

In San Francisco, the counselors are the sole guards for a population of youths who spend the day in classes and roaming the facility’s grounds, rather than locked up in cells. The counselors are unarmed except for handcuffs, said union representative Ben Sizemore, adding that the union contract provides around $10,000 for chemical agents like[continue reading…]

Northern California counties are leading their Southern California counterparts in a dismal figure: the rate of young people killed by gun violence. That statewide rate and gun violence generally is steadily declining, following national trends, but the report shows that homicide persists as the leading cause of death for black youths in California. It is the[continue reading…]

“More than 10,000 American children and adolescents are housed in adult jails and prisons. A hugely disproportionate number are of color. My juvenile clients are pre-trial, meaning that they are locked in adult jail immediately after arrest. They are poor and can’t afford bail. Many are disabled. The juvenile tier prohibits fresh air and direct[continue reading…]

“In San Francisco’s public schools, the homeless student population nearly tripled during the past 10 years: 844 in the 2004-05 school year compared to last school year’s 2,352, according to data from the San Francisco Unified School District. For the past five school years, more than 2,000 students were registered as homeless, including this year’s[continue reading…]

“Mary Howe, director of the alliance, said she’s looked at 37 places in the Haight since losing her lease and has been rejected 37 times. It seems nobody in this booming city wants to rent coveted commercial space so street kids can have somewhere to shower, use a toilet, collect mail, get counseling and just rest.